Love, Death, and Revenge
by SheerwaterPhoenix
Summary: Cato's and Clove's last moments, and Cato's fight with Thresh. Slightly AU at the end to make it more Clato. There is obviously Clato because that is the purpose of the story.
1. Chapter 1

**At first I was reluctant to write this because CLATO WILL NEVER DIE! But, here it is!**

** Clove's POV**

Yanked roughly off of Fire Girl, I can't hold back a scream when I see that Thresh is the one who grabbed me. I am dangling a foot off of the ground but don't stay like that for long, I am thrown to the ground with enough force to stun me for a few seconds.

"What'd you do to that little girl?" Thresh roars, full of pure rage. "You kill her?"

I scrabble backwards on all fours. I try to get my fingers around a knife but they won't cooperate.

"No! No, it wasn't me!" I protest, some strange tone entering my voice that I have never heard in it before. I have heard it coming from someone else—the girl from Eight, begging Cato not to kill her. What is _happening_?

"You said her name. I heard you. You kill her?" he demands for a second time, furious. "You cut her up like you were going to cut up this girl here?"

I didn't kill her; Marvel did it! "No! No, I—" Thresh has a huge rock in his hand, and I know what is in my voice.

For the first time in my life, I feel fear. I am afraid. "Cato!" I scream. "Cato!"

"Clove!" His reply is faint, but his calls are continuing, getting closer. "Clove, I'm coming!" He's coming, he's coming; he _has_ to be coming.

Thresh's golden brown eyes are hard, like copper in the mines of my district. Where I'm never going back. They glint in hatred and vengefulness as he brings the rock down hard.

There is a stab of intense pain, searing but brief. It fades, but I can hear everything.

"What'd she mean? About Rue being your ally?" _It must be Thresh, talking to Fire Girl_, I think. But it all seems so far away. What's happening?

"I—I—we teamed up. Blew up the supplies. I tried to save her, I did. But he got there first. District One."

"And you killed him?"

"Yes. I killed him. And buried her in flowers. And I sang her to sleep."

"To sleep?"

"To death. I sang until she died. Your district . . . they sent me bread. Do it fast, okay, Thresh?"

What? They can't be saying this. Fire Girl and Thresh . . . they cared about that little girl? I'm dying because of him. He's taking me away from Cato. _Cato . . ._

"Just this one time, I let you go. For the little girl. You and me, we're even now. No more owed. You understand?"

I think he says something else, but it's hard to hear now. I'm sinking, sinking into death. Cato, Cato, help me! You have to be here . . . where are you?

There aren't any more words. Maybe Fire Girl and Thresh went away. Then I hear it. Cato's cry is even nearer than before. He can reach me.

"Clove!" There's pain in his voice. Is he here now? I fight to get back my eyes, so I can see him. One last time.

And I can see him. He's kneeling next to me, holding a spear.

"Stay with me, Clove. You can't leave. I won't let you!" I can hear him now, much more easily than I could hear Thresh. But after this few seconds of my senses, I slip farther away from him. "No, Clove, no, you can't leave me here! You don't have any options, you _have _to stay!" His voice finally breaks. "I don't have anything left here without you." I distantly feel something wet on my face, a small drop of water. Then more come. It takes me a while to realize that Cato's crying.

No. That just proves that this _isn't _real. Cato never cries. He just _doesn't. _It doesn't happen.

"Clove," he says. "I love you."

Can I say it? I want to say it back to him. I have to say it back to him, but my voice isn't working. No. No. No, I have to tell him!

"I love you too, Cato," I croak. My voice is hollow, barely controlled by me.

The only things I can still see are his icy blue eyes, but they aren't so icy anymore. They're softer.

I want to say something else—I don't know what, I just have to say something to Cato—but I can't. After all the energy it took to speak that one sentence, I can't do anything else.

I hear one last thing. "Thresh, you will pay for this!" he roars. But then his voice turns softer. He must be speaking to me now. "Clove, you are the one girl I truly love. Glimmer means nothing; I've always hated her. No one matters at all to me. Except for you." I feel a slight pressure on my forehead distantly, not from the dent in my skull but from Cato placing his forehead on mine. "I will always love you."

Then the world goes dark.

**Cato's POV**

"THRESH!" I roar, barreling toward him, sword drawn. He raises his machete in defense, but jumps back as I slash the blade at him. It's longer than his machete. I can win this fight.

But nothing's truly won without Clove.

Thresh's eyes are filled with fear as we circle each other, something I would only expect from him in this circumstance. I lunge at him, then duck and slash at his leg when his machete comes arcing towards me. A next forceful blow from my sword, fueled with the fury that's possessed me for the days since Clove's death, snaps Thresh's machete in two. I easily disarm him of his now-useless weapon, and he has no choice but to tackle me. We grapple for a few seconds, and he even pins me for about three before I jab my sword at him.

I throw him off and notice that I stabbed him in the stomach. I stab his right hand—which is the one closest to me—before he can try anything. He yells out in pain, and I locate a rock to finish him off with.

Trembling with fury, I raise it above his head and slam it down. "You are going to feel the same pain she felt!" I bellow in anger. "You took her away from me! You _killed _her!"

I drop the rock and it hits the dry earth with a thunk.

"You killed her."

**Cato's POV**

The Girl on Fire sends the arrow through my hand, but in my rage I cannot feel a thing. And with her out of arrows, I can do this.

I slash Lover Boy on his wounded leg as well as I can before I drop him. His next moments are taken up by a strangled noise somewhere between gasping for air and screaming in pain.

Fear flashes in Fire Girl's eyes as I advance on her. "You can't do this," I hiss at her. "You can't kill Clove, and just _live_ your _happy little life _with Lover Boy. You should know you can't." I swing at Fire Girl but she leaps back, then slips on blood and collapses in a heap on the Cornucopia.

"But I can't let you off easy with death. No, this is what you're going to have to endure!" I step back and impale Lover Boy with my sword.

"No!" gasps Fire Girl in despair. "Peeta . . ." But the cannon's already gone off.

"You're going to go through what I did," I snarl at her.

I turn my face to the sky and slit my own throat.

**So, this is my first Clato fanfic ever, so I'm sorry if it was terrible. I've also never written anything from Cato's POV, so, yeah.**

**Hope you liked it!**

**And tell me if you want a second chapter of a short bit of their afterlife. It will be VERY SHORT if I even do write it.**


	2. Chapter 2

**As requested, here is the afterlife chapter! (After the long twenty-three days, here it finally is!)**

**Clove's POV**

The first thing I notice is that I'm connected to my body again. I have control. I flex my fingers experimentally, to see if it's really true. I _can! _I can_ move!_ There isn't any pain, either. I remember that there was pain, before I came here . . . where is here?

I am lying in a cave of silvery-green. No, not really a cave, but a cascade of the silvery-green that is cool to the touch is around me. There are hundreds of long, whip-like strands starting at the top and coming down, with the cool silvery-green things covering them.

My first thought is that they are knife blades, like the ones I used to throw. I stand without any difficulty and fluidly stride to a strand. I take it between my fingers and realize that they aren't knives, they're leaves. It's beautiful.

But where is Cato? I have to go find him.

I pull aside the curtain of leaf strands and step out of the leafy cascade. It's a tree—I saw the trunk, which is now behind me—and I think it's called a weeping willow.

Outside of the willow, there is a forest with golden shafts of sunlight filtering through the leaves. There are no dead leaves or needles on the ground, just thick, soft, dark soil.

"Cato?" I call quietly. "Cato?" There is no reply. And _where_ exactly am I? Why?

_I was in the arena,_ I recall. _I was at the Feast . . . I was distracted, trying to kill Fire Girl, and Thresh killed me. Cato came—too late. But he still came. He loves me. And I am sure he killed Thresh in revenge._

_ I am dead._

Maybe Cato won. He has it in him; he could easily win. And what's in his way? _A girl with some flashy chariot costume and a boy with a horribly injured leg._ So he isn't here. He won the Hunger Games.

I back up, back into the cover of the weeping willow. I lean against its trunk and slide down into a sitting position, hugging my knees to my chest.

I should be glad that Cato won the Games. But he's not here, and—

_We promised to win together._ He said that if we don't win together, he doesn't want to win at all. He's coming. And now, there's no such thing as coming too late.

I'm already dead.

**Cato's POV**

"Clove!" I call. I've been in this forest, not the arena but somewhere better, for hours—at least, I _think_ it's been hours. "Clove?" I call again. Not for the first time, panic seizes me. I've been here too long without seeing her. She has to be here. She _has_ to. "Clove!"

"Cato?" The wavering voice comes from my right. I turn to see her, and I come close to falling to my knees in relief. She is by a tree, a willow, holding the long whip-like strands away from her face. She's wearing a white dress and her dark hair is loose. I have to say I'd never think I would ever see her like that.

She covers the short distance between us and we embrace.

"You came," Clove whispers. "You're back."

"Of course I did," I reply softly. "And now I'm never leaving again."

**Wow, this is really short. Way too short.**

**I have to say that I don't think I'm all that great at writing this sort of thing. The first chapter was a lot better in my opinion.**


End file.
